Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

Dec 8, 2022 11:29 AM UTC
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We announced yesterday that some of our oldest Sonos products will be moving into a legacy mode in May of 2020. Our commitment is to support products with regular software updates for a minimum of five years after we stop selling them, and we have a track record of supporting products far longer.

Here is some public information we’ve shared, gathered into one place to respond to some of your questions in one easy thread, so that people can find the correct information easily.

Beginning in May, software updates and new features from Sonos will only be delivered to systems with only modern products.

After May, systems that include legacy products will continue to work as before - but they will no longer receive software updates or new features.

Sonos will work to maintain the existing experience and conduct bug fixes, but our efforts will ultimately be limited by the lack of memory and processing power of these legacy products.

We don’t expect any immediate impact to your experience, but access to services and overall functionality will eventually be disrupted, particularly as partners evolve their own services and features.

Customers with both legacy and modern products have time to decide what option is best for them. You can continue to use your whole system in legacy mode - in this case, it will stop receiving updates and new features.

You will also be able to separate your legacy products from your modern products, so that the modern products can still receive updates and new features, and legacy products can still be used separately. We’ll have more information on how to do this in May when you can take that action.

Another option available to all customers with legacy products is to take advantage of the Trade Up program, which allows you to upgrade older Sonos products to modern ones with a 30% discount. Trade Up will be open to customers at any time should they decide to upgrade.

We recognize this is new for Sonos owners, just as it is for Sonos. We are committed to help you by making options available to you to support the best decision for your home.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate with asking.

Update 2/22: A message from our CEO

We heard you. We did not get this right from the start. My apologies for that and I wanted to personally assure you of the path forward:

First, rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honor that investment for as long as possible. While legacy Sonos products won’t get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.

Secondly, we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. We are working on a way to split your system so that modern products work together and get the latest features, while legacy products work together and remain in their current state. We’re finalizing details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.

While we have a lot of great products and features in the pipeline, we want our customers to upgrade to our latest and greatest products when they’re excited by what the new products offer, not because they feel forced to do so. That’s the intent of the trade up program we launched for our loyal customers.

Thank you for being a Sonos customer. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. I hope that you’ll forgive our misstep, and let us earn back your trust. Without you, Sonos wouldn’t exist and we’ll work harder than ever to earn your loyalty every single day.

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Patrick Spence
CEO, Sonos

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DK_Madsen

Enthusiast II

To name this thread “Clarifications” is a joke, I am more confused, angry and sad than I was before reading it. Sonos’ communication on this whole thing is beyond abysmal. This is like finding out that the woman you loved and envisioned living with until the end of days suddenly turning schizophrenic and psychotic. You cannot believe it, but she is incommunicable. You want it to not be true, and hope for the best, but you realize that you may have to end it.

This thread cleared it up for me.

It is clear to me that everything they say is said very fuzzy, because they are trying to make you wonder IF, they might do something different from what they said at first.

It is clear to me that unless something is speficically adressed, you should expect the worst.

When people and companies are not very clear in their communication it is almost always because they are trying to tell you something they know you wont like, and therefor try to beat round the bush instead of getting to the point.

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DK_Madsen

Enthusiast II

Kumar

I agree and understand BUT Sonos is not flavour of the month for me right now

As i said I wont be buying anything Sonos from now on .

If i could resell my existing kit now i would but second hand kit is worthless now .

I have other connected devices BUT this has enlightened me about ANY internet connected device

So… i will just buy the cheapest kit from now on rather than “high” end kit “

Why waste good hard earned money ….

I agree, the cheaper gear will also be obsoleted, but atleast the monetary sting will be a lot smaller.

How sad, as this will mean that we will truly be a “buy and discard” society with cheap units that will not last as long because of the price, and be scrapped.

But then again...We already kind of are, with sonos, the only difference between them and the others is that they are expensive, and the others are cheap.

The security conscientious like me will have a hard time finding gear that does not have always-on spy microphones in them.

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Chris_183

Enthusiast II

The Brand is dead. Worst strategic mistake made by a growth tech.

...

One can only hope that the cash hungry board, through their lack of care for loyal customers will be hit hard where it hurts in their dividends and share price. Because this is the only way these types will learn.

I couldn’t agree more. I’m actually hoping SONOS does go bankrupt, because it would let Denon, Yamaha and every other company offering whole house audio to think twice (if not ten times) about discontinuing support, or offering a REAL discount (e.g. 75%) for upgrading devices.

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Michael Mantkowski

Enthusiast I

From what i have seen, the electronics inside the IKEA Symfonisk is exactly the same as inside the Play 1, with the only difference being that the Symfonisk has 256Mbyte instead of 64Mbyte

The Symfonisk is essentially identical to a play 1 inside, apparently.

Yes, the Symfonisk is the same PCB but with added ram and rom

Should be an easy retrofit when the Play 1 is obsoleted in a couple of years….If they have not changed the PCB in the Symfonisk or stopped selling it.

If you think about a Symfonisk is more functional than a play 1.. when Sonos brick your Symfonisk in a few years you can at least continue to use it as a shelf.

You do know that they put a kill switch on the rear bracket don’t you? When Spence approves a particular software update, it falls off the wall… Though he may not be around to approve it.

But who wants the aesthetically challenged IKEA products?

This is the problem I am having in researching a alternative to SONOS. I like the way my products look. Most of what I am seeing and either just plain ugly or they are too much over the top for my taste. I like the simplicity of the design I have now. The Amazon Echos come closest in that department in my opinion. But they don’t have a equivalent to a “sonos connect” right?

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IJN

Renowned Enthusiast I

Share price continue to fall - $15.04 last Tuesday to $13.62 now - a fall of 9.5% since the first announcement re legacy products.

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Whitenoise

Enthusiast I

What really annoys me when i search about the backlash, is that clearly some PR person from Sonos has tried to make it seem the most upsetting aspect customers have is that new and old will not work together in a single system or the new cant have s/w upgrades, and oops let it be known that yes they can now do something about that so all is ok.

WELL THAT IS NOT WHAT IS ANNOYING ME AT ALL, OR IT THINK THE MAJORITY OF YOUR NOW EX LOYAL CUSTOMERS

Its the fact the 15 Sonos devices i have that Sonos labels as legacy ( I label as dam expensive speakers now worthless) are NOT going to be software upgraded IN THE FUTURE to work with my on line streaming accounts such as Deezer, meaning they are useless to me once AND WHILST sonos suddenly claims Deezer will not work anymore with my Sonos kit, due to Sonos lazy ass, greedy, customer bashing, brand damaging policy does not change.

Stop trying to spin your self away FROM THE FACT you have just written off 100,000s of customers investment in your product by suggesting we are upset about something as small as “legacy not working with New” on a single system, its the fact you are not s/w updating older products to work with the services we bought our product to work with,as i would not ever now buy any of your new kit from now on ever ever again.

This. So much this.

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DK_Madsen

Enthusiast II

This is the problem I am having in researching a alternative to SONOS. I like the way my products look. Most of what I am seeing and either just plain ugly or they are too much over the top for my taste. I like the simplicity of the design I have now. The Amazon Echos come closest in that department in my opinion. But they don’t have a equivalent to a “sonos connect” right?

Denon Heos is not that different in design i think.

I am leaning toward replacing the 5 i have with a Heos 5 when my “modern” products stop working and i need to seperate the 5 from the rest to keep them updated.

Only problem is...When is Denon then going to obsolete my heos speaker

Maybe the best option is to just accept that every speaker will be obsoleted, be it cheap or expensive, and act accordingly and only buy the cheap speakers.

Still means that i need to replace them more often than is really needed from a hardware perspective, but the price will be a lot cheaper atleast.

I for one, am FINISHED, paying premium prices for speakers that needs scrapping 5 years down the road.

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User533936

Lyricist III

ok, so here’s a thing. take a gen 3 chromecast (£25), add an hdmi splitter (£8) , plug chromecast into splitter, plug audio cable from splitter into sonos play:5 , turn on autoplay

You can now cast to the chromecast, and play music on the speakers. You can also add each chromecast to a speaker group .

And with a little bit of lateral thinking you can cut the audio cable to each speaker to have only L and R wires active, so you have a stereo pair

So, for just over £30 you can “fix” your sonos 5 speakers to use the latest streaming tech.

Which begs the question - why can’t sonos produce such a device and keep the play:5 speakers working indefinitely - after all the “puck” wouldn’t cost *that* much to make. If they were to offer this at cost, I’m sure that most Sonos owners would be delighted at the forward-thinking and customer support of this premium brand and not the PR disaster it has become.

I have been responsible for my family purchasing 10k+ of sonos gear. I will not be doing so going forwards, and neither will they. Such a shame

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Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

Sat here listening to my Sonos now….

Thinking about what could have been… as opposed to what had come to pass…

Such wasteful behaviour

Damaging the environment, the customers and the brand

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Johnas

Enthusiast II

If

. The Amazon Echos come closest in that department in my opinion. But they don’t have a equivalent to a “sonos connect” right?

Amazon has Echo Link - which is a Connect/Port like device with digital in/out. I've never used it, reviews are so/so.

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